Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Back Issues: Lucky, September 2006

I've never used the "Like It" and "Love It" stickers included among the first few pages of Lucky Magazine. I don't really like stickers. And I don't like putting anything on my magazines. I have trouble even making myself dog ear the page of something I especially like. So the September 2006 issue of Lucky, festooned with Post-It tabs, is something of an aberration among my collection.

Considering Lucky's publishing cycle, I probably bought this copy as soon as it arrived in early August of that year. I had been temping at the same place for a month at that point and had a lot of down time. Mostly that time was spent on the computer. Reading the news. Fooling around on Facebook. Instant messaging my friends. This all changed when the CPU of the computer had a meltdown and I was left without one for a very long time. I needed a new way to distract myself, so every single September issue made its way to my cubicle. They sat in a little pile on my desk to the left of where my computer had once stood. I don't think I've read any group of magazines so thoroughly. And when I was done reading, there was nothing left to do but find a use for the Post-It tabs that I had discovered while rummaging through a desk drawer.

I love organizing things and making patterns. The tabs did not escape this mild obsession and were placed in the magazine in the order of Red Green Blue. That is until I ran out of red tabs near the end and was left with a simple Green Blue pairing. On the clear portion that adhered to the page, I wrote myself a note. The name of the designer. Or the type of clothing I was drawn to in the photograph. I've changed so much in the three intervening years that I'm surprised by some of my choices.

Almost halfway through and with no discernible reason for this magazine's salvation, I stumbled across "The Best New Designers" story. Usually the reason would lay here. I remember the Fall 2007 edition, which I regretfully tossed when I was moving, being full of designer names that I wrote down on a notepad to look up later. This was not the case for 2006. I began taking the pages ten at a time.

And then there it was. Mecca as it were.

In the March and September issues, there is always a season appropriate shoe guide. And four of my nine tabs were placed within this one. The featured styles would have instantly wormed their way into my schoolgirl loving heart. Loafer pumps. Flat boots. Mary Janes. Dressy flats. Cuffed boots. Platform pumps. Knee high boots. Only the t-straps would have left me cold.

That fall I spent far too much time wondering if I would ever find my way into a job where having multiple pairs of these shoes would be a possibility.

And this afternoon I spent far too long wondering if some of these shoes were still available in some far-flung corner of the internet.